Mountain View Open City Hall wants to hear from you

The city recently rolled out an online tool that solicits public feedback, called Mountain View Open City Hall.

And the first question staff posted is: "Should the City of Mountain View adopt an ordinance setting a local minimum wage?"

"[It] is the online equivalent of someone speaking before City Council during the public comments portion of a meeting," Communications Coordinator Shonda Ranson said. "Only now, they can give feedback to council anytime, anywhere they can use a Web browser. ... It's a tool that people can use to give feedback, read feedback from others and be alerted when new topics are added from the city."

A Sept. 8 study session on the issue of minimum wage prompted the city's first question. Topics will be updated throughout the year, starting in a few weeks.

Mountain View is the latest city to encourage public participation by using a tool offered by Berkeley-based Peak Democracy. The firm manages similar initiatives on behalf of Palo Alto, Menlo Park and other cities nationwide.

"One of the City Council's goals is to use technology to enhance city services, and this was a way for us to improve public engagement in a way that made it easier for our community members to offer feedback on study issues," Ranson said. "We're hoping by using Open City Hall that we will see better representation from all sides of an issue and reach members of the community who may not be able to make it to public meetings, but would like to make their voice known to city officials."

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Residents won't receive personal responses from staff, but each comment will be read and weighed as city officials make decisions, she added.